


just that still sort of quiet

by greeneyedolly



Series: Odi Lives AU [1]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 08:32:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15530304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeneyedolly/pseuds/greeneyedolly
Summary: There’s silence in the forest, except it’s only silent in the sense that Odi is the only sapient being there.





	just that still sort of quiet

_1\. and it is quiet_

There’s silence in the forest, except it’s only silent in the sense that Odi is the only sapient being there.  
The rain accounts for a lot of the noise; the pattering on the mulching ground, the hissing high above against the leaf canopy, the gentle thrumming in his ears against the hood of his raincoat. He turns his palms up towards the sky and watches droplets gather in his hands. He tilts his face up. Drizzle drums on his cheeks, dotting his face much like the freckles that litter his skin, and water beads on his eyelashes, batting against violet eyes that watch the dark clouds, rumbling through the gaps in the branches.   
The rain’s coming down harder now. The pattering becomes a drumming, rhythmic like music, and he has the sudden urge to seek shelter. He’s sure he knows somewhere near here; a scraped out hill covered by a tangle of protective roots from a huge oak. He accesses his vast memory banks (alongside a backup Google Maps page, for safety’s sake and out of habit) and sets off through the trees at speed, heading on as direct a path as he could until he reaches the tiny sanctuary. Odi carefully ducks under the snarled root system and pulls himself up the other side, climbing in the tiny space between embankment and root, until he manages to nestle himself into a mostly dry little nook where he can wait out the storm, and think, and listen, and watch.

_2\. and i am warm_

Odi slides the door open quietly and steps inside, water still dripping off of his raincoat, even though the storm ended over ten minutes ago. V’s body is charging, still and peaceful on a wooden chair on the other side of the room, one index finger twinging as electricity courses through her. The monitor on which a representation of her consciousness is displayed - an old, boxy television normally featuring a staticky image of a grassy meadow - now lays not off, but decidedly dormant. Odi smiles; she’s asleep.  
Quiet as a mouse, he eases his raincoat off over his head, hanging it on a hook on the wall, and slips off his boots to place them by the door. Then he pads across the discoloured, well worn floor planks to sit softly on the double bed by the window (he’d never quite figured out why they kept it, as neither of them used it) and reach out in his mind to V’s. She is dreaming, dreaming of meadows, dreaming of flowers. She dreams of a waterfall, of a woman (who he later learns is her mother), of climbing. She dreams of falling and falling and falling and falling, forever and ever. She dreams of climbing. She dreams of her mother. She dreams of warm, flowery meadows again.

_3\. like i’ve sailed into the eye of a storm_

The sky is dark, stormy, as Odi looks out of the window, watching a figure walk through the trees. The shadows are too murky to make out any features, but he can tell they’re synthetic; the way they’re staggering and stumbling reveals not only that, but also that they’re very low on charge. He continues to watch as they waver to a halt, then stiffen up and collapse directly down, like a cut down tree. He’s thinking that this one’s a little close for comfort - perhaps he could shift the body tomorrow? - when he realises. _I know her._ The long, straight, white-blonde hair, the pale skin, the slender figure - he refers back to his memory bank, and yes! There can’t be any other way. It’s Niska Elster.  
He puts his raincoat back on (as the drizzle has come again) and opens the door, still being careful not to disturb V, and starts to walk over to her, slowly, as if he still can’t quite register that it’s her. She hears his footsteps, clearly; she lifts her head with what little power she has left, her eyes unfocused. He kneels down in front of her and pulls his hood down, smiling.   
She squints, apparently at as much of a loss to see him as he was to see her. “Odi...?”   
His face softens. “...Not exactly.” Confusion flits across her face, but just as she’s about to speak again, her battery drains completely and her head drops to the floor, lifeless. Without even thinking, he rolls her over, picks her up in his arms and begins carrying her back to the house. Odi pushes the door open.   
“V, we have a guest.”


End file.
